


Stomach Bug

by bettertoflee



Category: SKAM (Norway)
Genre: F/M, OTP: we have to be together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-21 04:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14276484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bettertoflee/pseuds/bettertoflee
Summary: Noora isn't feeling so well...thankfully, William comes over to take care of her.





	Stomach Bug

The second William walks in her room, he feels the heat. The walls are almost dripping with condensation. Of course, that isn’t entirely true, but he thinks it might as well be. The fever is radiating off her body as if she’s a copper pipe filled with boiling water. 

He turns and gives Eskild an appreciative nod, silently thanking him for calling when he did.

“It snuck up on her,” Eskild says before pushing off the doorframe. As he walks past William, he adds, “I’ll get some cold water and a wet cloth and leave it outside the door.”

“Thanks,” William says. 

When Eskild is finally gone, William shuts the door quietly which leaves the room in an eerie kind of half-darkness, only made possible by the sheets which have been haphazardly hung in the windows. As quietly as he can, he tiptoes over to her bedside and clears a space beside her, easing down so that he has one arm draped over the space above her head. 

“Hey,” she says quietly.

“Hey yourself.” He smooths his hand over her hair and she turns to look at him through the darkness. “Caught something nasty, huh?”

“I guess so,” she mumbles, hardly lucid. William leans down and plants a kiss along her forehead. As he suspected, she’s hot against his lips. “Do you think you could get me a glass of water?”

“Eskild’s already on it. I’ll see if he’s brought it back yet.”

He stays by her side all day, only getting up when she needs a refill or has to use the restroom. At dinner time, Linn brings a warm bowl of broth and William helps Noora sip from the spoon. She looks fragile against the shadows made by the setting sun and he thinks, I should have been here when it started.

It strikes a chord he’s been trying to push away for a few months now. This whole not living together thing is great in some respects. It gives them the space they need to still be kids. But, they’ve not really, truly been kids for a long time now. Not if you consider the fact that neither of them really have family to rely on.

It’s not as if she’s really alone (she has Eskild and Linn, after all) but there’s always been a unique quality to their relationship. At the end of the day, Chris aside, she’s all he’s got. 

As he sits the empty bowl down on the bedside table and opens his arms for her to nestle down beside him, he thinks they might have to reconsider their arrangement. Maybe, if they have all their friends around them to help keep them in check, living together again wouldn’t be such a bad idea. 

In the middle of the night, he hears something that sounds vaguely like retching. It takes him a minute to remember where he is and to realize that the sound he thinks he hears is exactly what he’s hearing. As fast as he can cognitively react (going from the dead of sleep to being awake in under two seconds leaves quite the lag in processing), he’s up and pulling her hair back from where it’s dangling in her face as she leans over the side of the bed and aims for the trashcan that’s been lying in wait. It’s all he can do not to throw up right beside her. He’s never been very good at controlling his gag reflex. 

When it seems like she’s done, at least for the time being, he creeps out in to the hall to re-wet her washcloth. Eskild is in the living room with Linn, who is laying on the couch with her own trash can. As William enters the kitchen, Eskild gets up to join him. 

“Is she sick too?” he asks. 

Eskild rolls his eyes. “She thinks she is, but I doubt it. She doesn't even have a fever.” 

William tries to stifle his grin, but he can’t help it. 

“She’s a bit dramatic,” Eskild reasons, waving a hand dismissively in front of his face. 

By the time William returns to Noora’s room, she’s already fallen back asleep. He tucks the cool cloth at the back of her neck and continues to card his fingers through her hair as he watches her take deep, even breaths. Chancing that he might wake her, he feels her forehead for any sign of her fever. For the most part, he thinks she isn’t as hot as she was when he first arrives, but it definitely isn’t gone all together. 

He lets his head fall to the pillow behind him and tries to will himself back to sleep. It’s easier said than done, and after a few minutes of staring at the ceiling he doesn’t think he’s going to fall back asleep that easily. He reaches out for his phone and hits the lock screen, only it’s Noora’s lock screen that greets him. He doesn’t intend to invade her privacy--that isn’t what he’d set out to do. He was only looking to check the time. But...he can’t help but see a few words that jump out from the text that’s laying in wait. 

Thanks for coming over yesterday. I know it’s not your responsibility to play mommy, but you’re good at it. Hope you don’t catch whatever I had. -- Eva

William lets out a light laugh and places her phone back down on the nightstand, face down this time and a few feet to the left of his own so he doesn’t mistake them again. He flicks the switch on the side to ensure that the sound is off before picking up his own phone. It’s a little after three in the morning and the weight of having to wake up in two hours to get ready for work hits him in the chest. 

Noora is still breathing heavily beside him. If they’re lucky, she won’t get sick again...but he has a feeling that isn’t likely. 

Without a second thought, he opens his email and sends a quick note to the office, apologizing and informing them that he won’t be able to make it in. He knows this means that if he catches the same thing from taking care of her that he’ll probably have to suck it up and fake his way through a day of work anyway, but it’s worth it if that means he can be here for her when she needs him. 

Somehow knowing he’ll be able to stay with her through the next day makes it easier to fall asleep. It’s a good thing, too, because he’s up in another hour anyway when she’s hunched back over the bucket.


End file.
